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The X Factor Canada

Canada’s Got Talent may not be returning anytime soon but a local version of The X Factor may well grace Canadian screens in the future.

Simon Cowell has expressed his interest in launching a Canadian version of the show, which is a massive hit in the UK.

“Look at the Canadian talent that’s happened, you’d be crazy not to try and do something,” Cowell said during a brief visit to CTV in Toronto.

Cowell said that the project would need the right team behind it with people who get “what’s going on in the market now.”

“It starts, I think, with a record label,” he said.

“And could we get the money? Because you’ve got to get the cash. Have we got enough money to make the show compete with what you would see, say, from the States? Because we can’t make an inferior version. And can we do what we’ve set out to do? If we can get those two elements to agree then we’ve got somewhere to start.”

Cowell also says that it depends on whether the right group of mentors can be assembled.

“What I want to get to is (put) together a judging panel that can actually do the job they’ve been paid to do. Which is find that diamond in the rough. Change that person’s style of music to what he/she or they should be doing and creating a star,” said Cowell, dressed casually in loose blue jeans and a crisp white dress shirt that was open to mid-chest.

“Because for me that’s how I determine the success of one of these shows — has this show been the person that’s discovered and launched X? And frankly, in the past not enough of the shows have done it.”

He fully believes that Canada shouldn’t let its smaller size limit its possibilities.

“I don’t believe this attitude of, ‘We’re a smaller country, therefore we can’t compete with the U.K. or America.’ It’s nonsense,” he said.

“I would be the first to come here and I’d put my name out there and say to all the Canadians who want to enter: Look, maybe forget the past how it’s done, we’re going to do it in a slightly different way. I’m going to back you here financially because I believe that we can find a star. There has to be somebody listening to this who is that person. I have to believe that.”